Rampaging wildfires edge towards Los Angeles

Californian families returning to their communities after the wildfires are making the painful discovery that their homes have been reduced to smouldering ruins while others have escaped serious damage.

The unpredictable nature of the destructive blazes has been illustrated in a video showing one family returning to their home after they fled the fires.

As they drive through a neighbourhood in southern California parts resemble a war zone with burnt-out buildings, flames and smoke in some parts.

Firefighters and their tenders line the road.

But other houses are untouched, raising hopes of the children and their parents that their home has escaped damage.

After spotting the untouched properties, one of the children cheerfully says: "Look they're okay."

As they drive closer to their street, the children recognise neighbours' homes that have been left intact.

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But moments later hopes their house has escaped damage are dashed when they find it has been burnt to the ground, reducing the children to tears.

Another video from the fires shows a brave man saving a rabbit from the blazing roadside of a Californian highway.

He dashes across the busy road and waves frantically to the animal before picking it up from the flames.

Meanwhile, flames from the largest and most destructive Southern California wildfire churned toward coastal and mountain communities northwest of Los Angeles, disrupting travel on a major highway and triggering more evacuations.

A more favourable wind forecast still called for potentially dangerous gusts, but ones not likely to approach historic levels forecasters had feared, according to the National Weather Service.

"This is good news for the fire crews as the winds will not be driven quite as vigorously," a weather service statement said.

Celebrities count the cost

Properties belonging to celebrities and business icons as well as Caifornian cultural attractions have been affected, reports the UK Telegraph.

Rupert Murdoch's winery, Moraga Vineyards, where he lives with Jerry Hall, was evacuated on Wednesday morning as the fire bore down on the grounds, a spokeswoman said. Later a structure on the property was seen on fire as crews worked to extinguish the flames.

"We believe the winery and house are still intact," Mr Murdoch said in a written statement on Twitter. "We are monitoring the situation as closely as we can and are grateful to the efforts of all the first responders."

The fire also forced the Getty Museum, frequently described as the world’s richest art collection, to shut its doors to visitors.

The museum and its surrounding buildings sit on the most valuable piece of land in California, estimated to be worth $5.6 billion.

The homes of Mr Murdoch, Harrison Ford, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Gisele Bundchen are also believed to be under threat.

Mass evacuations

Calmer overnight conditions helped crews protect the Ventura County resort town of Ojai (OH-hi), where most of the 7,000 residents were under new evacuation orders following a burst of wind late Wednesday.

At Ojai Valley Community Hospital, officials said they moved non-ambulatory patients to another hospital as a precaution. The hospital said in a statement that several dozen patients still remained there Thursday.

A woman was found dead in a wrecked car in an evacuation zone near the city of Santa Paula, where the Ventura County fire began Monday night, but officials could not immediately say if the accident was fire-related.

To the west, firefighters prevented another disaster at tiny La Conchita, a seaside hamlet below coastal bluffs that in the past have unleashed destructive landslides, including one that killed 10 people in 2005.

A short distance up the coast, evacuations were ordered in Santa Barbara County for several hundred residents of the beach city of Carpinteria.

Officials intermittently closed U.S. 101 for more than a dozen miles along the coast, cutting off the major route for several hours as fire charred heavy brush along lanes.

In tiny Faria Beach, homeowner Steve Andruszkewicz and his wife used a garden hose to spray palm trees to keep them from burning.

"We're leaving," he said. "We've been packed up since Tuesday. We left Tuesday night and stayed down at our son's house. We came back yesterday, stayed the night, but this has got me worrying because of the blowing embers."

Flames consume a home in Ojah, California. (Photo: AP). ()

Resident Joseph Ruffner said he was staying.

"We evacuated the night before last, came home and the fire was down in that direction," he said pointing north. "And this morning there was a wall of fire back right over here. And I didn't think it was no big deal, but it's coming back to burn what it didn't burn yesterday."

Southern California has been hit hard by four major fires that have put tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders and destroyed nearly 200 homes and buildings, a figure that is almost certain to grow.

Melissa Rosenzweig, 47, was briefly back home Wednesday after evacuating from her Ventura house, which has been spared so far while most on her street had burned in the largest and most destructive of the region's fires. She and her husband were about to evacuate again, hoping they will get lucky twice as the new winds arrive.

Firefighters battle the fires in Ojah, California. ()

"Heck yeah I'm still worried," Rosenzweig said. "We're very grateful but I know we're not out of the woods."

In what may have been an early sign of the fire getting new life, several thousand new evacuations were ordered Wednesday night in Ojai, a small town with resorts, galleries, eateries and wilderness activities that serves as a getaway destination.

Across the wide Interstate 405 freeway from the Bel Air fire, the Getty Center art complex was closed to protect its collection from smoke damage. Many schools across Los Angeles were closed because of poor air quality and classes were canceled at 265 schools Thursday.

Total damage tallies for all of the wildfires have lagged as fire agencies have focused on battling the flames. Early on, authorities in Ventura County said 150 structures were destroyed there, but that number was expected to increase substantially.